Apparatuses and methods for automated cutting of the wings from poultry bodies are often used in the food-processing industry. The bodies of slaughtered poultry such as e.g. chicken, turkey, etc. have the actual poultry body with the wings attached thereto before further treatment and processing. The wings basically have a structure of three components. The so-called end piece is directly attached to the poultry body by a joint. The so-called central piece is arranged on the end piece via a further joint, wherein the so-called tip is arranged on the central piece on the side facing away from the end piece.
Apparatuses and methods are known in which the wings altogether, that is, including the end pieces, are separated from the poultry body. Such an apparatus is known from DE 43 04 781 C1, for example. The apparatus for separating the wings which is described therein has two cutting blades of the third pair of separating elements are constructed as so-called delta blades. These delta blades have, apart from a main body, a beak which is forwardly directed in the direction of transport T and which serves to extend the cutting edge beyond the main body. To put it another way, the cutting blades have a normally ascending cutting edge which extends from the main body into the region of the beak. One counter-support, each, is associated with these cutting blades in order to ensure cutting through the tendons and tissue parts which are left at the first cut.
Due to the two transport units, for which an operative connection is made in each case between the guide rail and the conveying chain, and by which the wings are, so to speak, clamped in the region of the joint between the end piece and the central piece, in such a way that a portion (the central piece with the tip) of the wing is located on the side of the guide rails facing away from the poultry body during transport along the separating device, and the portion (end piece) of the wing attached to the poultry body is located on the side of the guide rail facing towards the poultry body, the balls of the joints are pulled out of the sockets in particular at the junction from the end piece to the poultry body, so that the incisions of the first pair of separating blades and of the third pair of separating blades are made without damaging the bones.
As the end pieces are separated completely from the poultry body by the third pair of cutting blades, the poultry body itself can be transported out of the apparatus by the conveying means in the direction of transport T, while the separated wings or the end pieces which are left are clamped by the transport units, transported as far as the end of the guide rails, and then transported laterally away from the conveying means by the conveying chains. To sum up, with the known methods with the first pair of separating elements a kind of preliminary cut is made, in order to prepare for complete separation of the wings in the region between the end pieces of the wings and the poultry body with the third pair of separating elements, or create sufficient space for the latter to engage in the region of the joint between the end piece and the poultry body, while previously the central pieces (with or without tip) are removed from the end pieces with the second pair of separating elements.
However, it has turned out that it may be desired not to separate the end pieces of the wings completely from the poultry body or from the breast fillet, in order then to present the latter with the wing end piece attached to the breast fillet in an upright position. In this connection, the so-called premium cut is spoken of. As the previous apparatuses and methods however are exclusively designed to separate the wings completely including the end pieces from the poultry body, manual activity is always necessary. The whole cuts can be performed manually. Alternatively, the known automated methods can be stopped after complete separation of the wings between the end pieces and the central pieces, that is, the second separating cut, and the last step can be performed manually. However, the manual effort is firstly very high and therefore cost-intensive. Secondly, manual separation requires a lot of experience, so that the quality of premium cuts fluctuates, depending on the operator.